Cape Cod Golf Course Review - Fall 2004
OLDE BARNSTABLE FAIRGROUNDS GOLF COURSE

New Romance At Epicenter of Cape Golf Scene

BY JEFF BLANCHARD
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
GEORGE PEET

Route 149
Barnstable, Massachusetts 02648
Barnstable County
Phone: (508) 420-1141
www.obfgolf.com

Club pro: Gary Philbrick, PGA
Blue tees: 6,479 yards, par 71, rating 71.4, slope 128
White: 6,113 yards, par 71, rating 69.7, slope 124
Red:5122 yards, par 71,rating 69.1, slope 119

At last, the golf world has produced a love story that goes beyond our passionate pursuit of more length and better accuracy off the tee.

This is an actual love story, an affair of the heart, and not an old one, either, but a budding romance, with a golf club in the middle.

Olde Barnstable Fairgrounds Golf Course, to be specific, the municipal in Marstons Mills, is one of the seven villages of the Town of Barnstable, which has a population of 48,000 off-season. The club, a magnet for Mid-Cape golfers since it opened in 1992, is where Donna Flanagan and Michael Gaspard have been hitting it on the sweet spot for about a year now - ever since she moved from Wayland to Cape Cod to be closer to Gaspard, a builder of fine homes.

Both are accomplished players. He's a long hitter who expects greatness with every shot, and she's a steady ball-striker who recently took first in the club's Ladies Member-Member, Gross Division, with Brenda Ferraro.

Flanagan knew she wanted to play, but, being new in town, didn't have a partner, and so she inquired of Lorett Orlando in the pro shop, who put one and one together to make the championship team.

"We became fast friends," Flanagan said - and instant winners.

Flanagan is on a roll. In recent months she jumped the corporate ladder and began building her own business as a certified yoga instructor, sold her condo in Wayland, and relocated to the Cape, where she had spent many summers years ago as the guest of a "dear old friend" who still lives here.

"I always loved the ocean, and you feel pretty land-locked in Wayland," she said.

"When I met Michael," she continued, "I said to myself, 'Oooh, you're gonna have to take a serious look at this.' We had golfed a lot in the fall, at Olde Barnstable. Somewhere in there, I had this moment of, wow, this is going to be great. I was always passionate about the game, but I hadn't played a lot, and everything just sort of came together on the golf course."

"It was a big transition," she said, "but for love…"

Especially through her father, Jack Flanagan, a retired executive in the tech storage industry, Donna Flanagan has played some nice courses in her 40 years (on July 29), including Salem CC and Charles River CC. "I was kind of a snob," she said, "but when I came to Olde Barnstable, you had to be impressed with the whole thing, especially the way they maintain the course. I thought, 'I could play this a lot.'"

And she does - ever admiring the work of Bruce McIntyre, the superintendent, and Gary Philbrick, the PGA Professional, along with their staffs and, by extension, the Town of Barnstable for having the good sense to put it all together and keep it up in the face of harsh winters, huge popularity, town meeting, town politics and a steady stream of special events - juniors programs, the Cape Cod Open, qualifiers and championships of state and national events, and tournaments involvingmembers, groups and professional leagues.

As an architectural wonder, Olde Barnstable was designed by Mark Mungeam of Cornish, Silva, and Mungeam, who between them designed about half the courses between here and Plymouth. The idea, according to Mungeam on the club's Website, obfgolf.com, was to create a course "with large, undulating greens, deceptive approaches, and large chipping areas." A par 71, it measures 6479 yards from the back tees, 6,113 yards from the middle and 5,122 yards from the front.

Voted one of the Best Places to Play by Golf Digest, and consistently ranked in the upper tier on the Top so-and-so lists that proliferate on the magazine racks, Olde Barnstable Fairgrounds plays like the Best of Cornish, Silva and Mungeam, with each hole resembling a Cranberry Valley or a Captains or a Hyannis Golf Club (and so on across the well-dotted map).

It can get crowded, and it can get gnarly after six months in the deep freeze, but the people of Barnstable, town and county, can thank their lucky stars that the course is there. Without it, there would have been 60,000 rounds played elsewhere last year or the world would be that much crazier with all those people who wished they were hitting golf balls.

And let's not forget Donna Flanagan, who said, "I fell for the whole idea of moving to Cape Cod playing on that course and spending time with Michael."

Her favorite place to play (before this) was Grayhawk (Raptor or Talon, she didn't say) in Scottsdale, Ariz., and her lifetime best round was an 86 at LaCosta. "The most fun I can have is playing with my dad," she said, speaking fondly of her younger days. Now she plays with Michael and works on her game with Chris Vinci, a professional instructor who most recently worked for the famous Dave Pelz and is now looking to land something full-time on the Cape.

As part of the Vinci program, which Donna said is helping her game, she and Michael had their swings videotaped for analysis.

Between Michael, the move, the condo sale, the Cape, the regular play at Olde Barnstable and the lessons, Donna has taken about three strokes off her average, with a bugaboo number of 90.

Hearing her tell it in the condensed manner of a telephone interview from her moving car, it seemed a matter of time before the story got out in the form of a golf self-help book. WANT TO TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND? DITCH ASSIGNED PARKING, AND START PLAYING GOLF WITH A GUY ON THE CAPE!

Both are members of Olde Barnstable, and they walk, which is how we met them as a twosome with the same slot on the schedule.

It was April, and the turf was still trying to shake off its winter chill, but the place was already humming with activity - in the pro shop, on the range, around Arnold's starter shack, and out on the course, which is best entered down the right side, because a hook here could mean another new ball, and you're not out of the woods yet.

The opening stretch here at Olde Barnstable is its defining characteristic, as the beauty mark is to the starlet. It goes 5-3-5-3 before you land at a normal old Par 4, and it's 4's all the way out, with a monster 457 yards at No. 7 and a shrimpy 338 at No. 8.

The first hole gets your attention right from the tee. There is nothing but disaster down the entire left side of this reachable par five, and the green is tucked even further around this slight dogleg left. Bail out to the right, and you have trees impeding any go-for-it approach. Your first shot of the day needs precision and length. Oh boy!

The 5th hole is your first look at a par 4, and guess what? You again need precision to find the fairway, for there is death waiting for any slice, and hooked shots end up in trees left. The green is elevated, well bunkered, and situated on an angle with the deepest part running left to right. Par four is a good score here.

What Olde Barnstable has in spades is variety, in the way the drives set up, the number of clubs required on second shots, the angles that you must employ in order to shape your way around and on.

Because of the variety, it becomes a challenging course, unlike the place where it's driver-7, driver-7 all day. Here it might be three-wood-wedge, or driver-five-wedge. You get the idea. The back nine has some of the best holes on the course, particularly the par 3 15th hole. The green is situated 196 yards directly below what looks like the walls of a sand quarry. The green has bunkers protecting right, front and front right. Hit it long and, if you find the ball, you will play from the quarry sand to a green sloping away. A pretty hole that is a challenge as well.

Most of the landing areas are wide enough, and cushy enough, to land and stay within view of the stick, which gives it that comfortable Cornish feel, with nothing too penal, but nothing mundane, either. Bunkers are large, well placed and well managed, if numerous, and there are a few water shots available, but they are not required.

The 18th hole is a good example. This par five requires you to stay away from the left side bunkers and a ledge that kicks anything further left, but the sloping hill on the right is easily reachable. Your next shot requires you to negotiate a large holly tree in the center of the fairway by hitting around with a fade, over (if you dare), or around with a draw. A daunting shot when the match is on the line. The third shot, into the elevated green cut into the hill with the clubhouse to the rear, must fly over a large gaping bunker front left. A memorable finishing hole, but birdie is available.

Mungeam's strength, as that of his partners, is in being able to create a course that blends with its environment but also delivers a series of 18 vistas for the golfer, to survey from the tee and size up for their challenges and soft spots.

Mungeam also has the credentials to match his creativity. Cyprian Keyes and Shaker Hills are two of his designs, and his credits beyond Massachusetts include the preparatory work for the 2003 US Open at Olympia Fields in Chicago (and you didn't hear any Shinnecock-a-doodle-dooing there).

Finally, the greens here are large, true, and well thought-out for their ability to offer a selection of sexy pin placements, as with the first par 3, No. 2, at a mere 165 from the back.

On this day, the pin at No. 2 was tucked behind the left bunker, a beach really, with a wind pushing left and you standing on an elevated tee. (Just for the record, four was a good score from that lettuce over there on the right, with a plane flying over in my back swing, and smoke wafting over the treetops from someone's backyard burn, and these new people who seemed like they might be a couple, but not a married one).
Yet.
Fore!